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Thursday, May 11, 2017

Spring break is a HORRIBLE time to do a crowdfunding campaign (and other lessons learned)

I am excited to announce that my new allegorical business novel, the Game Changer, is about
to be released.

By early June, it should be available for pre-order on electronic channels and by the end of June the ebook should be ready for sale. The book will make its debut in bookstores on January 25th, 2018.

Here is the backstory of how a strategist and
podcaster turns author. Watch this short video, then I'll tell you what I learned about crowdfunding.

Getting a publisher to bring your dream to
life, while a truly wonderful thing, is only a small piece in the author puzzle.

You may not know that it is totally up to the author to
promote the book. And that takes not only a great network and amazing
connections, it takes money.

In March, I tried my hand at
Kickstarter™ and I was excited. I was drawn into their special offer of a one week
campaign, which they promised to heavily promote (...NOT). That sounded great to me, as then I would not have to obsess
for a month as to whether my business colleagues were supporting me. That was the smartest part of the Kickstarter decision.

Lessons learned included:

Spring break is a horrible time to do crowdfunding, especially for a one week campaign

One week is too short, as your own network will need time to digest it and decide how to support you (notice I didn't say IF)

Your network will support YOU if you ask - you don't need a crowdfunding campaign for that

The underbelly of the online marketing world will bombard you with promises of making your campaign successful, but have absolutely NO way to deliver on that promise

After getting halfway to my goal in the first day, I was encouraged. Then the onslaught of marketing firms began. Don't fall for it, no matter how good it sounds, as they prey on those
that are fearful that they won't raise the money, catching you on day
2, when support generally drops from the day 1 excitement.

At the end of the week, I had not gotten much more traction and the marketing firms disappeared. Then I realized that 99.9% of those that promised support were my friends. So, I admitted defeat on Kickstarter, but those that know me know that I NEVER give up.

Here is what I did:

I communicated with all of my supporters to tell them what I had learned and to thank them for believing in me.

I created a series of pages on the Game Changer Network site to allow my network to continue to support me (including mirroring the commitment they had made on the failed Kickstarter campaign).

I sent a personal email to each one of my supporters telling about the new approach and asking once again for their support.

I made it easy for them by accepting credit cards on Paypal. You don't have to be an ecommerce genius to do this. If you need help, don't hesitate to ask.

So here it comes, the ASK.

Please check out our pre-order offers HERE. We have put together some unique packages for you and your team. Whether you can only afford $15 or you want to take advantage of getting a 50% discount on my advisory services for our Game Changer discovery session, we have something for you.